- [Narrator] Carrot cake,
a delicious way to get some vegetables in.
It almost feels kind of healthy. Almost.
It certainly doesn't taste healthy when it's done right.
Sometimes, carrot cake can be really hit-or-miss,
but let me tell you, when it's done well,
that cake can be beautifully baked,
perfectly moist, and melts in your mouth.
Fill it with the perfect mix of spices,
slather it with some velvety,
decadent cream cheese frosting,
and it's to die for.
We're gonna show you how to make a carrot cake
that is moist and flavorful.
(jazzy music)
We're going to start off with our star ingredients, carrots.
You can control the size and the moisture content
of the carrots when you hand-grate them.
So when you're shopping for them,
you want to look for the biggest carrots you can find,
so they're easier to grate.
We'll be using the large side of a hand grater
for added texture in our cake,
to really highlight the carrots.
Store-bought shredded carrots are often just too thick,
and they've been dried out to preserve them,
so they lack that flavor and moisture content
we're looking for.
Okay.
The first thing we need to do is create a parchment round
to line our cake pans.
Take a small rectangle of parchment. Fold it in half.
We'll fold it in half again.
Then we'll bring up the closed tip
to create a narrow triangle.
Place that closed tip in the center of the cake pan,
and then we're gonna mark the edge of the cake pan
and cut off the excess parchment.
This way, when you unfold that triangle,
it should be a perfect circle
that fits in the bottom of your cake pan.
Now that you have your perfect circle,
the best way to secure it to the pan
is to use a little bit of nonstick spray.
Place the parchment circle inside and press down,
and then spray the top of the parchment
and the edges of the cake pan
to really make sure your cake does not stick.
Now, we're gonna preheat our oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Let's make this cake.
In a large bowl,
we're gonna combine the grated carrots and buttermilk,
and we're gonna stir them
until the carrots are completely coated.
The fat and acid from the buttermilk
helps create a tighter and more tender cake crumb.
If you use whole milk,
it lacks acidity and creates a coarser crumb.
If you use sour cream,
it has extra fat and creates a much finer crumb
and creates a little bit more of a dense texture.
When measuring your flour,
keep in mind that there's a difference
when you're scooping versus spooning to level your flour.
If you just stick your measuring cup into your bag of flour,
the scooping can pack it too tightly
and you'll end up using just more flour
than the recipe intends.
What we like to do is spoon our flour into the measuring cup
and level it to ensure that we're using a true cupfull.
We're also gonna use whole-wheat flour
for a toasty and graham flavor,
and it'll also help absorb some of that carrot's moisture.
Let's sift together the all-purpose flour
and whole-wheat flours with the baking powder,
cinnamon, ground ginger, salt, baking soda, ground cloves,
ground allspice, and some freshly grated nutmeg.
The carrot cake spice is generally closer
to that of a gingerbread.
It's definitely more ginger- and cinnamon-forward.
In the bowl of our stand mixer,
we're gonna combine the brown sugar,
granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract.
Then we'll fit it with the whisk attachment
and beat it on medium speed
until the mixture begins to drop from the whisk
in disappearing ribbons.
It'll take about three minutes.
Keep in mind the importance
of using room-temperature ingredients.
Keeping all of your ingredients at room temp
will help to create a better multiplication of the batter.
Also, eggs that are at room temp will trap air more easily,
which turns into steam in the oven
and creates a light and fluffy cake texture.
It's important to aerate the eggs fully
to create that volume.
With the mixer running on medium speed,
we're gonna slowly drizzle in the vegetable oil.
Make sure to use a neutral oil
like vegetable oil or grapeseed.
You can even use sunflower.
We just don't want to overpower our cake with flavors,
so something like an olive oil is not gonna be great here.
Now, the oil does not want to mix with the water content
from the eggs,
so you need to incorporate the fat real slow,
while whisking real fast to properly emulsify
and create a smooth, thick texture.
Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl
halfway through,
just to make sure everything is getting incorporated.
Continue mixing until the mixture is fully emulsified.
It's probably gonna take about two minutes.
Now, we're gonna alternate adding our dry mixture
and our carrot mixture.
So we're going to start by adding a third
of the flour mixture, and we'll mix it on low speed,
just until the flour starts to get incorporated.
Then we'll add a half of the carrot mixture
and continue mixing on low speed
until that feels incorporated.
We'll continue alternating
adding the flour and the carrot mixtures.
If you add all the dry ingredients at once,
it can make the batter too thick and difficult to mix into,
which can cause over-mixing in the end.
But if we add all the wet ingredients at once,
it could cause the emulsification process to separate,
and it's difficult to bring the mixture back together
once it's broken.
Now, we're gonna remove the bowl from the mixer
and use a flat rubber spatula to bring the batter together.
If we keep the whisk on and we overmix the cake batter,
it'll just make the cake chewy and dense.
And we want to finish gently mixing the batter together,
so we're gonna use the rubber spatula
to make sure everything is incorporated.
We made our carrot cake to highlight the carrots,
but people often add fruit and nuts.
If we were using all these mix-ins,
we'd coat them in flour
so they don't sink to the bottom of the pan
when we're baking.
Now, let's evenly divide the batter
between the prepared cake pans.
It's not the sexiest cake batter pour,
but wait till it's baked.
It'll be totally worth it.
We're going to bake them until a toothpick
inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
It'll take about 25 minutes.
Let the cakes cool for like 10 minutes
and then remove them from the pans
and let them cool completely.
Now, we're onto carrot cake's bestie,
that cream cheese frosting.
We're going to take ours to the next level
and add real vanilla bean.
We'll cream it together with butter, cream cheese,
vanilla extract, and the salt.
Then we'll add the powdered sugar and continue mixing
until it's silky and smooth.
Okay, now we're ready to build this thing.
So we're gonna place a dab of frosting on the cake board,
and then we'll place the cooled cake layer on top
to secure it to the board.
We're gonna use a cookie scoop
to help us measure the frosting,
and also, it's just so much cleaner.
Then we'll spread it evenly across the top,
and we'll continue with the other two layers.
Then we'll top this whole thing
with whatever remaining frosting we have left over.
We're not gonna be shy about this.
Now, that batter shot was not cute, but this is so sexy.
Ooh, isn't that just so satisfying?
There you have it.
A carrot cake recipe that is moist, flavorful, and stunning.
So when you want to go for that second slice,
remember there's carrots in there, and carrots are healthy.
You can tell yourself, "I don't care at all."
See what I did there?
I'm definitely winking. You just can't see it.
All right, I'm done.
(upbeat music)